


Toss-up

by sylph_feather



Series: (Pizza) Slices of Life [4]
Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series), Teen Titans - All Media Types
Genre: Cute, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Funny, Gen, Humor, Teamwork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:27:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23725327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sylph_feather/pseuds/sylph_feather
Summary: The team as we know them is a well oiled machine— but they weren’t always that fluid.
Series: (Pizza) Slices of Life [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1707352
Comments: 7
Kudos: 48





	Toss-up

The team’s fluidity and symbiosis does not come  _ naturally. _

Much of their first fights are just each Titan fighting individually— united against a goal, yes, but not guarding each other or helping each other in any particular way. 

Of course, it varies Titan by Titan.

Starfire and Raven are equally bad, using their massive power surges with little mind to the team, even causing danger for their own team without much warning. 

Cyborg is better, but not by much; he is not used to fighting, after all, superhero business all new on top of the team business. Granted, he at least has the experience of football to understand the idea of protecting players strategically, and he has a good weapon set to do so— he can clear a path for anyone in need. Still, he makes all these decisions without giving warning or communication, and without much forethought into next moves. He still focuses primarily on enemies that surround him (and it doesn’t help that at this point in the fight, the Titans will have not made much effort to stick together, and thus they are cracked apart; not that they fought like a unit, anyways). 

Robin is next in line. He’s…  _ partially _ a team fighter. He does well in sticking by  _ one  _ fighter— usually Beast Boy, by nature of them being melee instead of having the variety of ranged attacks that Starfire, Cyborg, and Raven do. After all, he’s used to working  _ with  _ only one fighter.

So yes, Robin will whirl around his partner in sync, reading their movements well, but to say he’s a good team member is a bit hard considering there are three  _ other  _ members left completely alone by him at a given time. 

Beast Boy, despite (numerous) other failings and inexperiences, is the best. Perhaps it is that the transition from the Doom Patrol, a team with wildly varied powers, to this team is not so different at all. He does not have the flow of Robin’s ability to read people’s attacks, but he at least keeps his other members in  _ mind,  _ attempting to stay as a group and tracking their progress in the back of his mind to ensure they’re not  _ dying.  _

Of course, he doesn’t  _ say  _ anything about it, really. No, no, he just  _ does,  _ throwing his hat in the ring (leading to the others hats following, as well as a great deal of  _ other  _ throwing).

That is to say, Beast Boy bluntly approaches Cyborg, whomst he has the closest bond with in this rocky new team, and orders excitedly, “throw me!” 

Cyborg’s beam at the large mech (looking like something out of an anime) stutters for a moment as he blinks confusedly. “Huh?” After all, it’s one thing to be flown to a location by Star, BB, or Raven out of necessity, and another to  _ fling  _ your teammate into the lion’s den. 

Beast Boy  _ literally  _ monkeys all over him, swinging on his arm and chattering excitedly. 

“Uh, jeez, fine,” Cyborg grunts, extending his palm out for Beast Boy to easily swing and plop into. “You sure?” 

The green monkey gives a fist pump, and Cyborg shrugs unsurely before winding up as ordered. 

Beast Boy flies through the air, and at the last second the lightweight monkey becomes a green dinosaur. 

Needless to say, the mech is crushed. 

xXx

When Robin says, “that was good teamwork, Beast Boy,” he seems earnestly, genuinely surprised at himself complimenting  _ Beast Boy.  _

Even Beast Boy blinks, a little baffled, before shrugging and grinning smugly. 

Robin’s mask squints after him as he and Cyborg go off to play videogames, ideas formulating underneath that ridiculously spiked hair. 

xXx

Next fight, Beast Boy and Robin end up together, per the usual. A horde of deadly quick (and  _ deadly ugly,  _ who designed these things?) scrap heap robots surround them, similarly splitting the team up around the dingy warehouse, surrounded by scrap metal. 

Normally it was a simple split arrangement;  _ you take one side I’ll take the other _ halfsies type deal. 

Beast Boy acts accordingly, easily shifting into a ram to do a charge— but he feels something fling itself over his back, a quick touch. Instinctively, he bucks, assuming one of those robots got the jump on him, but in rearing, he sees the flit of a black and yellow cape, and a green glove leaves his back as Robin vaults to his side. 

Beast Boy smiles, awkward expression on a ram— he can work with this. He keeps an eye on Robin as he stomps and charges the robots, and when he sees a flash of red, he stills himself and lets the gymnast clamber over him as a launchpad. 

His ears pick up crunching metal from all directions as they fell the enemies in double their usual time; in the end, they’re left backed up against one another, each facing a robot as it powers up a shot. A two robot ring, and each one is imperfectly placed— the one Beast Boy is facing is far, and the one Robin is facing opposite of him is equally far. 

Robin nods, a little hand wave, and Beast Boy takes it as  _ charge.  _

While the green ram is making headway, he feels something heavy swing itself around his horns, and Beast Boy understands Robin’s plan. With a well timed toss of his thick neck, the Beast Boy is flying to the robot located behind them. 

The satisfying crunches are almost perfectly harmonious. 

Robin heaves a breath, and grins devilishly as he holds his hand out in a knuckle bump. Beast Boy taps his curly ram’s horns against it, giving a snicker because  _ that was so cool.  _

...A sentiment shared by the rest of the team. In fact, as Beast Boy shifts back, Cyborg even redundantly states it— “that was  _ so  _ cool.” 

“Most amazing, my friends,” Starfire claps in agreement, floating. 

Robin snorts as Beast Boy rambles excitedly while gesticulating, “ _ Robin  _ and me,” he pauses, shaking a little excitedly because it’s  _ the Robin, “ _ we were like _ boom  _ and  _ woosh,  _ and all the robots went  _ kapow  _ and I felt you swingin’ around, and—“

“You know,” Robin cuts off, “I actually was inspired by  _ you.”  _

Beast Boy blinks, utterly surprised. “Huh?” The rest of the team seems equally dumbstruck. 

“Well,” the leader continues, “we’ve all been too caught up in our own abilities for ourselves, rather than necessarily in conjunction with each other, or to cover for weaknesses.” 

Cyborg puts two and two together— “like Beast Boy couldn’t easily turn to cover his sides, so you took over.” 

“Right,” Robin said, pounding a fist into his palm to emphasize his point. “And Beast Boy being there provided  _ me  _ a safe place to propel to and away from, which isn’t often something I have.” Robin smiled again, gaze flitting between Beast Boy and Cyborg— “I was inspired by that cannonball throw move.” 

“Monkey cannonball throw!” Beast Boy excitedly echoes, hopping around excitedly, a sugar high off of praise. Cyborg blinks as his hand is slapped in an unannounced high five. 

“Guess we can’t be winners  _ all _ the time,” Raven snarks, watching Beast Boy becoming childish once more. “And some of us hold onto that longer than others. 

xXx

Training becomes…  _ something else.  _

Of course, the regular individualized equipment is still there; punching bags, gymnastic equipment, etcetera. For these sessions, though, such are pushed aside. 

“Catch me!” Robin barks, flinging off a high beam. A net rests underneath him, but a black shield appears and proves such unnecessary. He grins, leaping off of it as Raven chants more solid platforms into existence, allowing him to launch and roll all over. 

“This is actually useful,” she admits in a hum. After all, the platforms take barely any concentration— they’d make a perfect thing to set Robin up for a distracting attack while she launches her own normal attacks. 

To the side, Beast Boy charges around, keeping Cyborg covered from the training dummy bots as he tries to shoot Starfire— who is playing the villain, and enjoying it immensely. Almost  _ too _ much. 

“BWAHAHAHA!” She laughs loudly as she flies low to avoid a blue beam set toa harmless level, “you are not the match for the great and the mighty  _ DARK STAR.”  _ She snatches bits of training bots, using her starbolts to fuse them together, continuing to maniacally laugh as she lobs it at Beast Boy and Cyborg. 

Beast Boy flings himself in the air while morphing into a brontosaur. His thick tail snaps the fused metal ball back at Star, though his head bumps against the ceiling. 

“Should we stop them?” Robin questions from across the gym, unsure. 

“Entertainment,” Raven hums, sipping at water. Truthfully, she just seems to be internally laughing at Starfire’s  _ Dark Star  _ character. 

Cyborg takes this time to duck between Beast Boy’s thick green legs, tagging Starfire with a blue beam just as she destroys the orb with her starbolts. 

“See,” Raven gestures, “it worked out fine.” 

Meanwhile, Starfire alights on the ground, clapping enthusiastically. “Oh, friends, this was the most of fun! You are learning to do the working together most grandly!” She bounces over, bubbly persona so different to that overexaggerated mask she wore previously— and on that note, she asks, “oh, may I do the playing of the villain once more, please? It was such great fun!” 

Robin almost enters the conversation to say  _ everyone needs to practice together,  _ but thankfully Cyborg and Beast Boy shout a horrified “no,” simultaneously. 

“The hero, then! Who shall be my partner, and who shall be our villain?” She is equally joyous as before, despite the clear terror her teammates have thinking of their grueling battle in which she floatily dodged everything while cackling crazily. 

“I’ll be your partner,” Cyborg says easily, and Beast Boy breathes in grateful relief, sweating and possibly mildly concussed from his idiotic head bump. 

“Oh greatest of joys! I greatly admire your prowess of shooting and the fighting of the hands,” Starfire says, openly honest as always. She glances around, asking, “and the evil doer?” 

When nobody responds, Cyborg jabs a metallic finger towards Robin, trying and failing to keep a relieved and triumphant grin off his face. 

“He picked you as a break,” Raven says, and were she a different person, perhaps she would’ve dispensed a low whistle and the type of  _ ooh  _ that says  _ not a good choice, dude!  _

Robin didn’t look angry, though.

...He looked  _ worse,  _ grinning almost ferally, mask corners tight with almost  _ excitement  _ at the prospect of showing how wrong Cyborg was. 

He reaches into his utility belt, and Cy only has time to gulp. 

xXx

...All in all, training was a success. 

**Author's Note:**

> i do take prompts for this series :3


End file.
